There are two theories that explain how humans might have been the primary factor in dogs’ tail wags.
In order to shed light on the mystery of tail wagging—which is often used by pet owners to determine how happy their pet is—four experts collaborated to write a paper for Biology Letters. The reason behind tail wagging is still mostly unknown.
Two theories were developed after Dr. Taylor Hersh of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands and her colleagues examined more than 100 studies on the subject of why dogs wag their tails.
Both theories refer to how, over tens of thousands of years, humans have tamed and bred dogs, gradually leading to the development of more tail-wagging traits than in other dog breeds.
“Rhythms are pleasing to humans.”
A theory dubbed “domesticated rhythmic wagging” explains how people deliberately chose dogs with more tail wags than others to breed because we are drawn to rhythmic patterns.
“Cognitive neuroscience shows that human brains prefer rhythmic stimuli, which trigger pleasurable responses and engage brain networks that are part of the reward system,” according to the article.
According to the experts, dogs are the way they are because humans are wired to appreciate rhythms, either consciously or unconsciously.
According to the paper, this could be the reason why dogs wag their tails so frequently when they are interacting with people.
